In any given city, a particular market becomes the cradle of its unique fashion sense. And,
that's what makes it the fashion capital of that city. We took a ride to these fashion
capitals to discover how India reinvents its fashion quotient.
This is India ka Fashion Capital Powered by Flipkart Fashion. And today our destination
is the torchbearer of ethnic fashion, 'Dilwalo ki Dilli'.
Delhi's been inhabited for centuries. The city is believed to be the site of Indraprastha,
the capital of the Pandavas. Through the ages, many empires and kingdoms also made Delhi
their capital. Each empire brought with it its own culture and an individual influence on
language, architecture, food, and fashion. India's capital Delhi has many little capitals.
So it has a food capital, a literary capital and a touristy capital but we are interested
in the dazzling, the colourful, totally overcrowded, chaotic, over the top fashion capital of Delhi.
Here you can find the best ethnic and Indian wear anywhere in the country.
Do you know the fashion capital of Delhi? Chandni Chowk.
Chandni Chowk runs through the middle of the city. It was built in 1650 by Shahjahan, designed
by his daughter. It has a square shaped pool in the centre on which moonlight used to reflect,
hence the name Chandni Chowk. This commercial hub still holds the legacy and charm of Old Dilli.
Chandni Chowk is a study in chaos. It's the height of Indian ethnic and traditional wear.
Most grooms don't even know that their sherwanis are inspired from that Mughal heritage.
Its speciality is the variety of the markets here and their Indian-ness in everything,
starting from authentic food, saris with chikan and zari work, extravagant bridal wear and some hardcore bargaining.
Delhi has always been the home of India's
prominent and most successful designers. So we thought, why don't we meet up with such
a personality. Rina Dhaka is one of the biggest names in
Indian fashion. She burst on to Indian fashion scene in the 1980's and has since popularised
Indian ethnic wear across the globe. She is bold, well informed, incredibly fun and has
a colourful history with Chandni Chowk. Ira - What do you think is the role of Delhi
in Indian ethnic fashion and fashion in general which spreads out all over the country.
Rina - So Delhi is a hub of manufacturing and of craft. A lot of designers actually
move from Mumbai to Delhi in the early 90s because we have access to a lot of industry
which is in fashion. So there are artisans who will be your factory workers…we have
ample of them. There are machine embroidery workers…we have ample of them. Then there
are digital printing techniques…we have enough. Then you have handcraft workers who
are from the Ghaziabad-UP belt. The tasslers, there are hordes of those. The export industry
is mostly centred between Delhi and Ludhiana. Ira - But your inspiration comes from where?
Rina – Streets! Chandni Chowk! Ira – Is it very messy, dirty? Does it need
to be restored? Is it… Rina – So you go there, I will give you
my sound advice on how to survive. Ira – To everybody
Rina - First of all, walk on your toes, very fast like a lizard. Concentrate like you are
in Bourne Identity. Rina – And you are going to weave through
these spaces between humans because that's… shoulder, shoulder, shoulder, shoulder…so
you gotta go sideways. Then be careful on this side. Somebody might be blowing their
nose and they have real power. And it comes out like an arrow. And you look your hand is wet.
And there are those rickshaw jams on odd days.
Ira – And then every day is like this. Any time of the year it's like this.
Rina – No, some days I don't go. They have told me now. I know this much now I think,
"Don't come on Mondays and Saturdays". Ira – Indian wear and ethnic wear from North
India is something that is really sought after and when you think of Delhi or you think of
North India…you think of people coming to shop here
Rina – Punjabi Ira – Yeah…for weddings. So, that culture
is very strong over here and do you think that will sustain?
Rina – I think the 'Great Big Fat Indian Punjabi Wedding' will survive and so will
the designer and so will the workmen and so will you because all of us are talking about it.
And somewhere there is a very good fortune or a karma being circulated because when a
person picks up an embroidered piece or even a wedding bridal piece, at least a good 10
to 20 workers have benefited from it that chain of things. There is no way that craft
can be done by one alone. Ira – And that all comes from Delhi!
Rina – Yeah, wherever you are providing incomes whether directly or indirectly, it
will be a good fortune thing. And I think the wedding should realise that. Ira – Wonderful.
As Rina said, ethnic fashion is here to stay
and it's heartwarming to know that those occasional, hand-embroidered clothes we buy, help workers
continue with their craft and raise their families. After this fascinating meeting,
I moved on to yet another fashion veteran! Varun Rana is an alumnus of National Institute
of Fashion Technology. Today he works as a features writer and has been a fashion writer
for publications like GQ India, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, and Cosmopolitan, and
he has an interesting take on fashion today. Ira – What is your take on ethnic wear and
the difference between the ethnic wear now and when you first started off.
Varun – See ethnic wear is something you buy for an occasion. You don't buy it to wear every day.
Ira – Right.
Varun – There is an attitude of luxury attached to it because it is handcrafted.
Now in a mass-produced way what you get in a place like Chandni Chowk let's say. It is not
completely hand embroidered. There is some modern machinery going on which is then highlighted
using some Selma-Sitara, little bit of Mukaish.
Ira – Would the layperson know the difference?
Varun – Yes they do because the difference reflects in the price. Because in Chandni Chowk
there are things which are completely handcrafted and completely hand embroidered
and they are available.
Ira – So, they have both?
Varun - Yeah, next to the things which are semi or mixed embroidered as we call them
like ME and HE - Machine embroidered and hand embroidered. The second difference is the quality.
If you are machine embroidering something, you will choose a fabric which is more stable.
So you would rather choose polyester georgette rather than a silk georgette which is pure silk georgette.
Pure silk georgette you will only hand embroider, you will not send it under the machine.
Ira – But you are saying there is a market for both?
Varun – Yes, absolutely.
Ira – And both the shopkeepers who maybe there are actually doing their business simultaneously.
Varun – No. So they carry a range of things right because in Chandni Chowk you never know
who walks into your shop. That's the beauty of Chandni Chowk. Ira - What do you mean?
So the richest person can walk into a shop and say, "Ok, show me what you have".
Ira – How did these shopkeepers in Chandni Chowk know what to do with those high fashion outfits?
Varun – Do you remember the time in the 90s when a lot of Miss India's were winning
Miss World and Miss Universe and all of them were Ritu Kumar. That was the time when the
tree of life motif suddenly became very cool for lehenga embroidery.
Ira – Right…right
Varun – Now what is happening is an international pageant like Miss World or Miss Universe is
being aired on Doordarshan. And these Chandni Chowk shopkeepers are sitting in their beautiful
courtyard homes in Old Delhi with their wives and children. And they are seeing Ms Yukta
Mukhi winning Miss Universe or Priyanka Chopra winning Miss World in that beautiful zardosi
outfit. I still remember the green bustier with the red thing and the trail at the back…the
orange trail. And they are like, "Well, we can do this work too but its design is
different". Let me try and replicate that. Okay, Priyanka Chopra is doing bustier with
a this thing…let me now see how I can translate it into a salwar suit. So it's pure old
fashion ingenuity and necessity as the mother of invention. These are hardy folk. They have
been in Chandni Chowk since…some of the families have been there since the 16th century.
So can you imagine they have seen invasions, they have seen bloodshed, they have seen empires
rise and fall. And they have kept going. They have survived. And they survived because they
have kept abreast of what we think are now trends but they think it's necessary innovation.
Ira – How much of that has to do with Bollywood?
Varun – The Bollywood influence is staggering. The influence is not just a stylistic influence,
it's also a very cultural and a very real economic influence. It makes businesses grow.
This meeting was an eye opener as far as ethnic wear is concerned. From the lavish bridal
lehnga to an affordable salwar-kameez, there is so much that goes into it. Families here
in Chandani Chowk sure know their stuff! I am so looking forward to chit-chatting with
these people that make Chandi Chowk what it is.
Ira - How long have you been working here?
Shop owner – Almost 20 years.
Shop owner – I have been here for about 20 years. It's been 20-25 years.
It's been 35 years
Ira – Tell me something about Chandni Chowk that no one else knows.
Shopper – For the masses for affordable ethnic wear, this is the best place.
Ira – How strong is the influence of Bollywood?
Shop owner – Since Anushka Sharma has worn that lehenga, it is still tending. There is
one 15,000 and also for 80,000. There's also a copy made from Surat.
Ira – What are you looking for?
Passerby – For lehenga and ethnic wear.
Ira – What are you shopping for today?
Passerby – I have come from Nagpur to shop salwar, kurti and ghagra for my wife.
This is really good. There is a big shop here, and I have been finding some really good things.
Shop owner - This is a bridal lehenga, and it's called 'Band Baaja Baaraat'.
Ira – It's called 'Band Baaja Baaraat'!
Shop owner – It's the best option for brides, and it's made on a micro.
Anushka Sharma wore this lehenga.
Ira – So, Anushka Sharma is your favourite!
Shop owner – I've made this lehenga and it has sold a lot.
Ira – So, what movie did she wear this lehenga in? Shop owner - Not in a movie but at her wedding.
Ira - She wore it at her wedding! You copied her wedding lehenga!
Shop owner – Yes Ira – Wow!
Ira – If you had to choose a fashion capital in Delhi then which are would you choose?
Shopper – I really loved Chandni Chowk because even the most common men can afford
clothes from here in an effort to make themselves beautiful.
Flipkart is India's fashion capital because they combine the best of Delhi's fashion
capital with the convenience of online shopping. So what has Flipkart learned from Chandni
Chowk and how does it do it even better? To tell us this we caught up with Nishant Gupta,
Karthikeya Bhandari and Sharon Pais.
Nishant – So I actually happen to come from Chandni Chowk which is the fashion capital
of ethnic fashion. All my life I have actually seen everybody coming to Chandni Chowk for
their ethnic fashion needs. Be it festive seasons, be it weddings, be it anything under
the sun. And we at Flipkart have been using that knowledge to get more and more sellers,
so we have hundreds and thousands of sellers which sell a variety of products in men and
women ethnic fashion to make it available to our customers.
Kartikeya – At Flipkart, we have just signed both Ranbir and Shraddha because we acknowledge
the importance celebrities play when it comes to fashion. Now what we have done with them
is we haven't just used them for traditional TVC but we actually seen them manifest across
multiple different touch points. Be it on social. Be it on digital. We have leveraged
a lot of visuals and sort of callouts on our own media channels as well so like the Flipkart.com
and the app. And we are also fully aware of the fact at Flipkart that when people look
for trends, they search a lot by celebrity names. So beyond Ranbir and Shraddha, there
is a lot of stuff that we have done with Filmfare and GQ, just to be on top of the latest trends
game clearly because celebrities are that important when it comes to fashion.
Sharon – India loves ethnic wear and we are the largest store offline, online, chain
of stores put together…we are still the largest ethnic store in the country.
Last year we launched our very own private label called Divastri. We are very proud of it because
a lot of people are loving it. It operates across different portfolios like saris, lehenga cholis, etc.
And the thought behind the brand was that we want to give celebrity fashion
that the Indian woman loves and aspires to have in her wardrobe. So far so good.
People are loving the brand. The reviews, ratings, etc are wonderful and we hope to make India
enjoy the brand and love the brand as much as much as we do with the selection that we give.
So that's it for our adventure in Dilli. I'm Ira Dubey and I hope you come back for
the next leg of my journey where I go to the fashion capital of the city of joy - Kolkata
where we look at how they are leading the way in affordable fashion. I'll see you there.
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